


do not wait, do not wait (i'll be there, i'll be there)

by matsuhanasss



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Car Ride, Dialogue Heavy, Established Relationship, M/M, Road Trip, Small Town Angst, Small Towns, escaping small towns, kinda low key sad, like it is so dialogue heavy its Disgusting, semi-angst, talk of leaving town, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:47:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23062684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matsuhanasss/pseuds/matsuhanasss
Summary: they have four hours in a car left.eddie can't help but think about leaving derry.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Kudos: 18





	do not wait, do not wait (i'll be there, i'll be there)

**Author's Note:**

> title from do not wait by wallows
> 
> can you tell i was a little upset when i wrote this
> 
> small town angst is strong because i live in a small town and i just want to Get Out

Eddie is watching the countryside go by. 

Richie and he are heading back to Derry, much to their upset. Richie is driving one handed, his right hand loosely gripped in Eddie’s. The car is quiet; the only thing you can hear is the two boys light breathing and the fuzzy hum of the radio with its volume at two. They had been talking earlier, joking and laughing, on the phone with Beverly and Stan. They’d call Bill and the others when they were closer to Derry, but they were still a good five hours from home. 

“What if we hadn’t come back?” Eddie asks. He hears Richie sigh and he rubs his thumb over Eddie’s knuckles. 

“I dunno.”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t think about it. About just… dropping everything and staying in Cali.”

“I can’t, Eds. But I don’t think I could do it—not now, at least,” Richie says. Eddie glances up at him, but if Richie feels anything, he’s schooling his expression well. 

“Why?”

“My parents. Our friends.” 

“Oh.”

“I’m not saying I don’t want to get out of Derry,” Richie continues. “But I just don’t think now is the right time. At least for me.”

“What if there’s never a right time, Rich?” Eddie asks. He looks back out the window. It’s something he’s thought about before—there never being a right time for him to leave Derry. Eddie knows there will be a good time for him to leave, though, even if it doesn’t feel like it. Maybe Richie is right. Maybe there is a right time.

“Think about this, Eds: we’re almost out of school. We’re almost done with this shit show, and then we can pack up for college somewhere far away from here, and we’re free. The only memory Derry has of us is in class photos and yearbooks. Then we’re scott free of everything; parents, pressures, being quiet,” Richie says, hand still loosely gripped in Eddie’s. Eddie glances his way. Richie is still looking at the road. 

“Yeah. Yeah, we’re almost out of here.” 

“We just need to tough it out for one more year, yeah?” Richie says. And okay one more year doesn’t sound that bad, but it will feel absolutely terrible. He’ll be a senior this year and even though he hates this town and almost all the people in it, he knows he’ll cry at his graduation. Stan’s dead set on going to Princeton, while the rest of the Losers don’t even know what they’re going to eat in the morning. All Eddie knows is that they’re going to end up far away from each other. 

Maybe not him and Richie.

Eddie feels empty as he talks. Like there’s nothing there, nothing to feel. He doesn’t know what to do. HE’s afraid he’ll never know what to do. He’s fucking ecstatic to escape Derry, but he’s terrified he won’t be satisfied even after he’s gone. He doesn’t want to be like the people who left Derry, only to come back a few years later unsatisfied with the direction they’d lead themself.

Richie and Eddie had loved LA for the few days they were there. It’s a terrible car ride to-and-from, but it’s a car ride that’s worth it. Richie’s always wanted to go to LA; he’s gone there once on vacation in sixth grade and it’s like he’d nestled his own little home there already. Like he’d left his heart in his hotel room and came back to Derry with one goal on his mind—get to Los Angeles. Eddie doesn’t blame him—the place is gorgeous—and if he wants, if he could, he’d follow Richie there. And he might, for all it’s worth. There’s no place he’d rather be than with Richie and happy. When he’s with Richie he’s happy. When he’s with Richie, he feels like there’s something inside that deep, unsatisfied void he feels inside of himself. Richie looks over at him.

“A year is a long time,” Eddie finally sputters out. 

“I know. But we’ve done this for what? Thirteen years? We can do one more,” Richie shrugs. Eddie tips his head back onto the glass of the car window, closing his eyes. He can see himself in LA, happy and with Richie and with something worth living for. He doesn’t feel trapped or confined or claustrophobic in the slightest; he feels free and alive, like he isn’t just floating in and out of places. Like he’s not just busting tables and working a stupid retail job for a vacation, but he’s working towards something now. Working towards finding his way out of Derry and towards that shred of happiness, the bit of light he can expect. 

“We can do one more. Yeah,” Eddie breathes. Richie gives him a soft smile that crinkles the corners of his eyes. He looks so pretty—elegant, almost. 

“I feel like this is quite literally the most serious conversation we’ve had in a very long time,” Richie says. This makes Eddie chuckle.

“I think that’s because it is the first serious conversation we’ve had in a very long time.”

“We all wanna get out of Derry, we just have to work at our own pace, Eds.”

“I know.”

“And that means finishing our senior year at Derry High. Besides, I think if you didn’t come home Sonia would’ve lost her mind. She would’ve called the cops on me for kidnapping you, dude. LAPD would’ve had to arrest me,” Richie says, like this is a matter of fact. Eddie loses it, laughing so hard he snorts. This makes Richie’s grin even larger.

“We just need to finish out senior year! We can do it! Go Derry!” Eddie tries to sound enthusiastic, but the force of cheer is too clear. This causes Richie to snort.

“That was gross.”

“Thank you, I could tell.”

“Promise me this, Eds.”

“What?”

“If we move away from each other,” Richie starts, “like far away. Not like you go to Nevada and I’m in California—no. Like you’re in, I dunno, fuck all Vermont or New York and I’m in California… promise we’ll still see each other?”

“Of course, Rich,” Eddie says, feather soft. 

“Because we’ll get out, I know we will. I just don’t wanna lose you.”

“You won’t, Rich. Swear it. I’d follow you anywhere. And who could forget you?”

“No you’re just stroking my ego,” Richie says. Eddie cackles.

“I know we aren’t close, but do you think we should call Bill and them?”

“Yeah.”

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr @bloodyknuckles


End file.
